Open arms: Portsmouth formally welcomes USS Virginia crew

Wednesday

Oct 13, 2010 at 3:15 AMOct 13, 2010 at 5:19 AM

By GEOFF CUNNINGHAM Jr.gcunningham@fosters.com

KITTERY, Maine — USS Virginia Commanding Officer Tim Salter and his 134-member submarine crew will be above water for the next 14 months, but a dedicated team of Portsmouth residents are making sure they will be soaking up the Seacoast way of life.

On Tuesday top city officials gathered with Salter and Portsmouth Naval Shipyard leaders for a special "Plaque Hanging" ceremony that formally welcomed the Virginia's crew to the region that will serve as their home during a major maintenance overhaul project.

Cheers erupted from the shipyard's Tirante Tavern when Salter looked out at the crowd and expressed confidence in the shipyard that will undertake the first major overhaul of the Navy's newest class of a nuclear attack submarine.

Salter said his 377-foot-long submarine is in good hands at the "the best shipyard in the United States."

The Virginia steamed into the shipyard on Sept. 1 for an extended overhaul that will see a crew of civilian workers teaming up with Navy personnel to perform maintenance and modernization of the submarine's systems.

Portsmouth has been selected to serve as the host community for the vessel's crew with City Councilor Bob Lister having taken a lead role in setting up a support network and a schedule of events that will look to "immerse" the submariners in a Seacoast he noted has a long history of supporting the military.

Lister said the arrival of the USS Virginia brought great pride to a community that has responded with an outpouring of support and interest in taking part in the host community planning.

"We look forward to working with the crew and their families. We are going to make this a win-win situation," Lister said.

Assistant Mayor Nancy Novelline Clayburgh welcomed the crew to the region with City Manager John Bohenko also traveling to the shipyard to mark the occasion.

Bill Caron, the project manager for the overhaul, used the Tuesday ceremony to present Salter and his crew with commissioning ribbons — a Navy tradition stemming back to World War II that celebrates the vessels.

Navy officials and Portsmouth leaders joined to hang a USS Virginia plaque in the tavern that now sits with those representing the USS San Juan, USS Oklahoma City and USS Helena — the others submarines currently being worked on at the shipyard.

Salter — a Buffalo, N.Y., native who graduated from MIT — said his crew has already been impressed by a Seacoast community he knows well, having lived here during a maintenance period on another submarine.

He said the submarine is essentially in for its "100,000 mile tuneup", which followed a successful six-month deployment.

"We appreciate the rock star status we have experienced since we got here," Salter said.

Tuesday's ceremony was an opportunity for Virginia's largely blue-camouflaged crew to be formally introduced to top shipyard officers and a civilian project team that will be tasked with working with Navy officials to execute the maintenance project on time and within budget.

Nancy Peschel, president of the Naval Civilian Managers Association, said the arrival of the USS Virginia was met with particular excitement considering it is the first of its class to be commissioned and now overhauled.

Peschel noted the shipyard has been preparing for the new endeavor for more than five years with electronic bulletin board having provided shipyard workers and personnel with regularly reminders of Virginia's arrival.

The shipyard has invested more than $14.5 million in capital equipment assets to support what will be a new mission of upgrading and overhauling the Navy's most advanced nuclear-powered submarine. Major upgrades and renovations of a specially equipped dry dock have cost $8 million alone. Shipyard Commander Capt. Bryant Fuller III said the facility is ready to undertake a job that represents the future of work at the yard.

"We are able to set the standard for how Virginia-class maintenance ought to be done," Bryant said.

And while officials waited more than a month to formally welcome the Virginia's crew, Bryant indicated work on the vessel began almost immediately after it landed at the shipyard on Sept. 1.

Bryant said the submarine has been in dry dock for the past two weeks.

Salter said the 14-month maintenance project will allow his crew to educate themselves on new systems and perform regular maintenance as they go through various training "evolutions."

He said the submarine is far more advanced than the Los Angeles-class submarines with the USS Virginia having performed well with its top-notch crew.

Lister and others will spend the coming months setting up programs and holiday events that will see Virginia crew members out spending time in the community.